Bloomberg’s article, entitled “3 Tough Choices for ECB on Greece”, is bylined by Mohamed El-Erian, the chairman of US President Barack Obama’s Global Development Council.

The article picks up from the acrimony at the Eurogroup meeting on Friday, and points out to the “most potentially decisive discussions” will take place at the European Central Bank where decision makers will consider how much emergency liquidity to extend systemic Greek banks and on what terms.

At the weekly meeting on April 29, the ECB will feel tremendous pressure to keep Greece on life support.

The ECB has three alternatives, according to el-Erian:

1. Pretend and extend would require the ECB to pretend that it is helping Greece deal with a liquidity problem instead of acknowledging the country’s “true predicament”, which has to do with “deep economic and solvency deficiencies.” This decision would keep options open in case there is a breakthrough in negotiations between Greece and its institutional creditors.

2. Pull the Plug. The ECB would be honest and limit further financing to Greece. Further assistance would be conditional on policy progress and new money to Greece from other sources. This development would increase the risk of Greece exiting the eurozone.

3. Pull the plug as part of a comprehensive Plan B. The ECB would refuse to extend additional liquidity but would seek to minimize the risk of a Greek contagion and disorderly spillovers to other economies by expanding its funding windows for both governments and financial institutions.